The present disclosure relates to a transfer-side facsimile machine, a facsimile communication system and a reception-side facsimile machine, and more particularly to a technology for transferring facsimile data between facsimile machines.
There is a facsimile machine that has the function of transferring, when receiving facsimile data, the received facsimile data to another facsimile machine which is previously set at a transfer destination. For example, a facsimile machine is known that is set at a workplace and that transfers, after a user has returned home, received facsimile data to a facsimile machine at the user's home. A technology is also known in which when the number of times redialing for transfer from a transmitter to a receiver is performed reaches a given number of times, image information is transferred to another receiver which is set, and at the time of the transfer, the transmitter notifies the information that the image information is transferred to the other receiver to the receiver on which the transmission was first attempted.
However, the above-described facsimile machine that performs the transfer to the home never fails to transfer, when a setting is made such that the data transfer is performed, the facsimile data to the transfer destination. In this case, while the user is going to the workplace from the home, when the facsimile machine at the workplace receives facsimile data which is a target to be transferred, the facsimile data is transferred to the facsimile machine at home. After the user arrives at the workplace, it is impossible to receive the facsimile data at the workplace.
When the transfer destination is assumed to be the facsimile machine at home, and the power of this facsimile machine is turned off, the facsimile data which attempts to be transferred from the transmitter serving as the transfer-side facsimile machine is transferred to another facsimile machine. Hence, the facsimile machine at home receives the facsimile data, and thus it is possible to avoid a problem in which the user cannot receive an image on the facsimile data at a desired place. However, when the transmitter dials to a plurality of facsimile machines many times, since in the meantime, the facsimile data which is a target to be transferred continues to be held in the internal memory of the facsimile machine, a memory of a large capacity is needed, with the result that the cost of the facsimile machine is disadvantageously increased.